MATLAB refers to both the numerical computing
environment and to its core programming language. Created by The
MathWorks, MATLAB allows easy matrix manipulation, plotting of functions
and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and
interfacing with programs in other languages. Although it specializes in
numerical computing, an optional toolbox interfaces with the Maple
symbolic engine, making it a full computer algebra system. It is used by
more than one million people in industry and academia and runs on most
modern operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Unix.

"The idea behind these tutorials is that you can view them in one window
while running Matlab in another window. You should be able to re-do all
of the plots and calculations in the tutorials by cutting and pasting
text from the tutorials into Matlab or an m-file."

The tutorial is designed for students using either the professional
version of MATLAB (ver. 5.0) with the Control Systems Toolbox (ver. 4.0)
and the Signal Processing Toolbox (ver. 4.0), or using the Student
Edition of MATLAB (ver. 5.0). The commands covered in the tutorial and
their descriptions are also valid for MATLAB version 4.0.